Pages

Thursday, April 8, 2010

I Love Your Blog

Since the cat is out of the bag and everyone knows what I was really doing on vacation, I'll tell you about the days leading up to it... which can best be described as a series of unfortunate incidents.

Let me elaborate... a series of unfortunate incidents are not major life altering catastrophes, nothing tragic happened, nobody died or lost a foot, instead it's a continuing stream of small pain in the petunia events that chip away at your bank account and inconvenience you leaving you less than chipper and feeling like you are in desperate need of an aura cleanse (never had one of those but they sound fun).

Six days before we left, the charger for my macbook broke. It died. You have to understand that my macbook is my connection to the world outside of Le Petit Village. Le Petit Village is a teeny tiny non-english speaking place, with old people, feral cats, and one épicerie that's opened sometimes (why do tourists come here?? oh yes, it's pretty and charming. whatever). I need my macbook. The internet keeps me sane. Luckily sweet Honey Jr gave me his laptop for the week. I'm not completely sure it was out of kindness rather than fear but either way, it was a fantastic gesture and I was thrilled to have it, backward French keyboard and all.

The day before the macbook charger died, we had planned on a productive Saturday. Saturday being the one day that The Husband and I can get anything done (most everything on a Sunday is closed). We were going to Avignon to pick up The Husband's suit for the wedding and our wedding rings.

First we needed to stop at La Poste in St. Michel (our bank and post office all rolled into one. you think that would make it convenient. it doesn't) and on the way, we would drop Fifty off at Papa's house for the day.

Fifty still has that puppy car sick thing going on so driving is always a bit precarious. We have to stop the car a lot to give him time to compose himself whenever I start to notice his eyes glaze over and his mouth getting extra salivary (I know that's not a word, just go with it). We were less than a mile from Papa's house and Fifty had weaseled his way onto my lap, and like an idiot, I let him sit there. And then it started; a huge eruption of puppy vomit, all over me and into that pocket on the door (my passport was in that pocket). Gross. Gross. Gross. We had to go back to the house so I could shower and change. Not a big problem, it was only going to put us an hour behind, we still would have time for Avignon and getting back for The Husband's hair cut appointment that afternoon.

The man at La Poste had other ideas.

Upon our return to St. Michel, we rolled up to La Poste to see all the shutters closed. We checked the time, it was a little past 10am. The man usually opens about 10ish (in the south of France, all time is an 'ish'). Maybe he was in a pastis induced slumber because those shutters didn't open until almost 11:30 (he lives above La Poste). Imagine living where you work and still being late? I think someone needs a better alarm clock and an expresso machine. Or maybe an irate American girl can bang pots and pans outside his window every Saturday morning. That would work too.

Too late for us to go to Avignon.

Thanks La Poste man.

It turned out to be a tiny blessing that the La Poste man decided to open later and cancel our Avignon trip because a little while later...BAM... MIGRAINE.

I spent the rest of the day in my darkened bedroom with a cold cloth over my eyes.

The Husband stayed next to me (he's good like that) until it was time for his wedding haircut. Back to St. Michel he went for the third time that day. Only when he got there, the girl said, "Oh yeah, I remember you phoning for the appointment, but I must have forgotten to write it down. Can you come back in an hour or two?" Moron.

When he did go back for his haircut, she cut the back of his neck. Twice. Moron.

I'm telling ya, we need an aura cleanse.

And then there was a bunch of other stuff that I'm not going to include because I don't want to manifest any more wacky bad juju. It's all about sunshine and rainbows over here now and I intend on keeping it that way.

Believe it or not, there was a point to all this bad juju drivel.

While theseincidentswere happening, the lovely Nancy at Window To My Sol passed this on to me...

Unfortunately I was too wrapped up in my mini dramas to give thanks properly to lovely Nancy or to do anything about it, but now that my old, tired self is finally back to normal, I'm passing it on to Dash at French Sampler. Dash lives in south-west France and besides having a super cool moniker, writes about trips to Spain for lunch and other such fab things.

The other day she wrote a post about Lady Emma Hamilton that I loved so much, I spent the morning googling Lady Hamilton when I should have been studying my French, and having my aura cleansed.

10 comments:

poor you!!! To not have access to your MacBook is up there with the major stressors in life. Well, it is for me. Really, one would think that I get food/water and air from my MacBook by the way I am attached to it.Here is my wish for you, no more bad juju!xoxo

Oh Sara Louise I can relate to so much in this post, it is exactly the same round here, with regard to opening hours and appointments, I sometimes wonder how some businesses make money, if it was not for tourism, economically, I am sure France would be on it's knees!

Thank you, so much for the award, I am very honoured, so glad you enjoyed the Emma Hamilton post.

I think that would be the hardest thing for me to adjust to, all time being "ish." Here in urban New England, time isn't "ish" it's NOW. As you know. Sorry about the migraine. As for the puppy puke, well, that's motherhood for ya. Ya gotta clean up and keep moving.

strangely i am in need of an aura cleansing too! I have been having a series of what i call "life's annoyances" but "unfortunate incidents" is the same same. yesterday, i spontaneously booked a one week trip to Disney with my son. This will be my aura cleansing, what better place than on the best place on earth, where dreams come true! anyway, thanks for the shout out!!! and here's to a new lease on happy juju to the two of us! cheers xoxo

I have been meaning to comment on your earlier post, the one where you got married, and how you say "my HUSBAND" sounds so wierd! Oh, I remember on our honeymoon, the very first time I had to refer to this man as MY HUSBAND to the hotel staff. I almost went through the floor! It sounded so..... what?.... grown up! And strange. "I'm really a WIFE and I really have a HUSBAND?" Can't be. So, many many years later we remain thus and very happily!

okay we are a band of "fainéants" in France : true! i'm sorry for the bad aura and the migraine ( i suffered a crisis this week too ) , hope everything will be better ! Put encens everywhere in your home , crystal in the angle's rooms and say mantras ! Everything will be ok ... Or DRINK ...a LOT ( wine not water)

So I went to French Sampler blog and was fascinated by her writing of Lady Emma Hamilton...added the book about her to my list of "to reads"....as for your day...too much in one day. I would need a glass (or two), a long soaking bath...so sorry for the migraine..I have never had one but what I hear they are awful! You must have such patience with the odd hours of where you need to shop with. Here everything is open almost all the time...I sometimes wish they weren't just so there could be quiet days on the roads....

Whenever we would have days like that growing up, my mother would say, "Everything happens for a reason." and then rationalize with things like, "If La Poste had been open, maybe we would have gotten in a car accident on the way."

So that's the way I've always looked at terrible days. Not at how bad they were, but how much worse they could have been.

...

Fáilte, Bienvenue, and Welcome!
After ten years living life as an American expat in Europe, I've returned to the States with my French husband and dog in tow.
Follow along on my adventures and misadventures as I bid adieu to the Gypsy lifestyle while trying to set down roots and navigate my new life as an ex-expat back 'home' again.